Current national and global events.
Let’s get this straight. Nationalized health care — which would replace greedy insurance companies with overwhelmed government bureaucrats as middlemen between patient and doctor [that’s the image being sold], ending the tragedy of uninsured and underinsured Americans — is socialism. Rescuing banks — that award huge bonuses to undeserving executives and neared bankruptcy because of […]
Stereotypes are tough. Arkansas can move right along, minding its own business with no Huckabee or Clinton (either of them) feeding the 24-hour international news cycle in at least 168 hours, when a politico from my northwestern part of the state, prominent only here, opens his yap. State Sen. Kim Hendren, Republican of Gravette, a […]
Apparently, it’s not just the banks. It’s not just the automakers. Not just the newspapers. This, from today’s Wall Street Journal: Shoppers continue to pare back spending even on basic household staples, resulting in lower-than-expected sales for Procter & Gamble Co. and Colgate-Palmolive Co. The consumer-products giants are responding by raising prices to keep profits […]
The 24-hour news and/or business channels, which can’t fill the time with analyses and opinions — fresh information only takes a couple of minutes — more frequently use predictions to round out the cycle. Can you take their forecasts to the bank? Can your bank then take them to the Fed? Never mind the truth, […]
The news media were not allowed in to the Capitol’s Statuary Hall for the inaugural luncheon, a traditional meal hosted by the members of Congress who organized the overall ceremonies. Bloggers didn’t make it past Secret Service agents wearing toques. Fortunately, there were flies on the wall, despite the January temperatures. They did not care […]
The shoe bomber, that is the shoe thrower, launched his attack 13 days ago, Dec. 14, and the story still has news legs. It should be ignored but the “attention must be paid” (A. Miller), then it might go away. The success of the attack by Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi (Associated Press spelling) should not […]